Game Over
by GMcGregor
Summary: Team One pursues desperately an unstoppable subject who leaves a trail of bodies all through the city.


**[Story that can fits anywhere between "Run to Me" and "We take care of our own". Hope you'll **

**Enjoy it . I apologize in advance for any mistakes in my English that may lead to confusion. ]**

_Team 1 is patrolling in their SUVs when they get interrupted by Winnie._

**Winnie: **Team 1 Hot Call. Shots Fired reported in a residential area.

**Ed **_with Greg: _We're close Winnie, you've got an address for us?

**Winnie: ** 42 Ardmore Road. Unis are holding the perimeter.

**Greg: **Ok Winnie but keep them at a distance until we arrive to make contact . And get EMS on stand-by.

**Ed: **Who owns the house?

**Winnie: **A Martin Bray, 42, he's a bank manager, works downtown. Divorced, no children, no criminal record. And I can't find any weapon registered.

**Ed: **Ok guys. We don't know what we're getting ourselves into, we approach the house with caution until we know more.

**Team: **Copy.

_The SUVs pull back around the perimeter delimited by two cruisers. The team regroups around the officers._

**Greg: **You were the first responders?

**Officer: **That's right. But it's the neighbors you're gonna want to talk to, we didn't notice anything out of place since we arrived. They're the one who called 911. Every other house has been evacuated.

_The officer makes a beckoning sign to two teenage girls in the crowd, they step closer, passing under the yellow police tape._

**Ed: **You girls called it in?

_The girls nod._

**Greg: **Can you tell me how many shots you heard?

**Girl1: **I don't know..Three or four.

**Girl2: **Just one first. And I thought it was like, a tire exploding or something.

**Girl1: **Yeah but then, "bang bang bang."

**Greg: **And you're sure it came from that house?

**Girl2: **Both our parents are at work, it couldn't come from our part of the street.

**Ed: **What do you know about who lives in there?

**Girl1: **Dunno. Old guy in a suit. We don't see him much.

**Greg: **Does he get many guests, people coming in and out of his house? Strange behavior or loud noises? Anything out of the ordinary?

_The teenagers shrug._

**Greg: **Ok thank you girls.

_One of the uniforms bring them back behind the yellow tape._

**Sam: **Four shots, I guess we won't find out that the poor guy just shot himself in the foot while cleaning out the family antic.

**Ed: **Doubt it. Ok team we're gonna approach the house. Leah you're with Spike red wall, Jules and Sam?

**Jules: **Through the rear.

**Ed: **Green wall for me. Priority here is to get eyes and hears.

**Greg: **Winnie can you dial me in?

**Winnie: **Sure thing boss.

**Spike: **No movement red wall, we've got eyes in the living room, no one and no sign of struggle.

**Ed: **I've got nothing on my side.

**Jules: **Ed, the back door is wide open. No sign of breaking and entering but if our shooter is an intruder he came through there.

**Ed: **Nice neighborhood, we may be looking at a burglary gone wrong.

**Sam: **We go in?

**Ed: **Negative, not yet. Boss?

**Greg: ** No one's picking up Eddie. You call it like you see it.

**Ed: **Copy that. Jules and Sam you enter through the back, Leah and Spike you join me with the battering ram we'll go through the front door.

**Jules: **Chances are our guy is long gone now.

**Ed: **We don't know that, we proceed with caution.

_The team gets in position._

**Leah: **On your go.

_Ed steps back as Leah takes down the front door. Both teams enter the house._

**Ed: **Police !

**Sam: **SRU Police !

_Jules and Sam take a flight of stairs while the rest of the team stays below. _

**Spike: **Kitchen clear.

**Ed: **Living-room clear.

**Leah: **Basement clear.

**Jules: **Ed, upstairs!

**Greg: **What is it Jules?

**Jules: **We've got a body.

_The team regroups in a study upstairs where a middle-aged man is lying face down, wriggled with bullet holes. A chair has been knocked over and multiple objects from the desk are now on the ground._

_Ed, takes out his PDA, crouches down and compares the victim with the photo of Martin Bray that Winnie sent them._

**Ed: **Boss we can confirm the ID of our dead guy. Owner of the house Martin Bray.

**Greg: **_sigh: _Thanks Eddie.

**Jules: **Well this is one angry subject.

**Leah: **Overkill. Kept on shooting after the guy went down.

**Ed: **One more reason to track him down.

_Spike reaches out underneath the corpse and retrieves two objects. A cellular phone and a small plastic device._

**Sam: **What is it?

**Spike: **A phone.

**Sam **_rolling his eyes: _I meant that plastic thing.

**Spike: **Dunno. I'll take it back to the truck, see what I can find about it.

_Jules gets the phone from him._

**Jules: **Looks like he was on the phone when he got attacked, but either the communication ended when he fell or whoever was on the other line hung up.

**Winnie: **You're right Jules. Martin was in a conference call with his associates when he got shot. They just sent me the whole audiofile. But it's gonna take me some time to go through it.

**Greg: **Well can you patch me through his colleagues, I'd still like to get some intel.

**Winnie: **It's gonna be tough boss, they speak nothing but Japanese. But they heard the shots for sure from what I understood.

**Greg: **Alright keep me posted.

**Winnie: **You got it.

**Leah: **Guys ! I've got something.

_Leah takes out a gun from a desk a few steps from the corpse._ _It's rather light and considerably smaller than a 9milimiter. _

**Ed: **What do we got?

**Sam: **Doesn't look like any gun I've ever seen.

**Leah: **No clip in it. It's fake.

**Spike; **Guys take it back to the truck, I may have an idea.

**Ed: **Copy. I think we're done here.

**Winnie: **Boss, I've got the recording of the attack.

**Greg: **Alright Winnie patch it through.

**Martin Bray: **_Japanese conversation followed by a crashing noise. _

Who are you? How did you?…PUT THAT DOWN !

_The four shots then follow._

**Spike **_in the truck; _Not much to go on Boss. I don't hear anything on this that would help identify our guy.

**Ed: **Trail is getting cold Serg.

**Greg: **I know Eddie.

**Winnie: **Maybe not. I've got a 911 call from a woman two blocks away who says she's got thrown out of her car by a man who ordered her out. He had a gun.

**Sam: **He's on the move.

**Ed: **You've got a description for us?

**Winnie: ** Male, Caucasian, 25 to 30. Black hoody. That's all I got from the caller. But he took off in a grey Prius, license plate Tango, Zulu, Charlie, 3,5,8.

**Greg: **Ok, put an APB out there but SRU only, our subject is armed and highly volatile. And set the owner with a sketch artist just in case.

**Winnie: **Copy.

**Ed: **Alright Leah you're with me, southeast, Jules and Sam you go west. Winnie let's put more cruisers in the streets, let's get this guy.

**Team: **Copy.

_The team gets in their vehicles. _

**Spike: **I took apart the gun we found at Martin Bray's home. It's not a weapon it contained a GPS tracking device. I'm guessing it's supposed to respond to a certain signal, then lock itself on its location.

**Greg: **Well what does that got to do with our victim?

**Spike: **Maybe nothing but I think it's programmed to respond to the same sort of plastic device that we also found on him. The range is rather large though. You'll only have to get the gun in a 2miles radius from the device for the gun to respond but it doesn't work for the one we already got from Martin Bray.

**Greg: **Ok…How does it get us closer to our shooter?

**Spike: **I'm not sure yet. But Martin was tracking someone. Maybe the person he was looking for found him. It's expensive technology I should be able to track the equipment.

**Greg: **You keep us posted. Team? Anything yet.?

**Jules: **_driving:_Nothing yet.

_But Sam notices the stolen car abandoned in an alley as they pass it._

**Sam: **Wait Jules slow down.

**Jules: **We've got a twenty on the stolen car. Melrose and Elm.

**Ed: **Ok guys you check it out, go careful.

_Jules and Sam park their SUV behind the suspicious car and get out weapons in hands. Positioning themselves around the vehicle with tainted windows. Jules signals to her teammate to open the car door. But as they open it, still armed. It's empty._

**Jules: **Ed, he took off. There's no one inside.

**Ed: **Why did he dump the car?

**Sam: **I don't know. I mean it's miles from the airport or from any train station. The car has a full tank of gas, he could have just taken the highway and disappear.

**Jules: **Maybe he lives 'round here.

**Ed: **He's got every uniform tracking his ass down, I'd think his home would be the last place he'd wanna hide in.

**Sam: **Well the hood is cold. He's been gone a while.

**Greg: **We'll be there in a sec. Campus the neighborhood. Our guy stopped there and I wanna know why.

**Jules: **Copy.

_Ed and Leah approach the neighborhood where the car was found but find themselves blocked by police tape._

**Leah: **Can't be a coincidence, we're just to blocks away.

_They get out of the SUV and make their way to detective Stainton already on scene._

**Ed: **What's going on?

**Stainton:** Murphy James,32 year old male. Shot down in the park during his morning jog. The shooter took off on foot. We didn't get much from our only witness. Old lady walking her dog says he "was very tall, brown haired, wearing a dark hoody". But she insisted that he already got blood on his jeans before ever pulling the trigger on our victim.

**Leah: **It's our guy. How long ago was that?

**Staiton: **I got the call 15minutes ago.

**Jules: **Are we looking at a spree shooting there Boss?

**Greg; **Doubt it. Martin Bray was attacked inside his house, our subject then drove a significant distance to take down another person. It feels targeted to me rather than just a "point and shoot".

**Ed: **If he's choosing his victims we might be able to gain on him and get to his next target before him.

**Greg: **_arriving with Spike: _I'm on scene Eddie, let me worry about the connection between the victims. I want every officer looking for this guy to stop the bodies from pilling up.

**Ed: **Copy.

_Spike's PDA rings. He steps away to take the call._

**Greg: **Winnie you ran a background check on our second victim?

**Winnie: **Murphy James. Unemployed, single, lives alone, no criminal record, not even a parking ticket. I can't find anything remarkable about this guy, boss.

**Greg; **No link to our first victim?

**Winnie: **Nothing, I'll keep on digging though.

_Greg approaches an officer carrying a big envelope marked "evidence"._

**Greg: **Is that the victim's belongings ? Can I take a look?

_The officer nods. Greg empties the content of the envelope on the palm of his hand. From it, falls a set of keys, a cellphone and the same plastic device found on the first victim._

**Greg: **Team. I've got our link. Both victim were carrying the same electronic object.

**Ed: **I thought Spike was on it, we need to find out what that thing really is.

**Spike:**_hanging up his cell:_Your wish is my command. I've got a hit on the equipment we found on the victims.

**Ed: **Talk to me.

**Spike: **It's the prototype of an expensive role-playing game.

**Greg: **Paintball, Laser-tag, that sort of thing?

**Spike: **Right, I don't know the specifics though, 'cause game developers keep a heavy lid on their toys until they hit the market. But I know the company that produces it, Espen Platform, and they have an address downtown.

**Greg: **Good you're with me, we'll check it out.

**Spike: **'kay.

**Winnie: **Team, I've got multiple 911 calls in progress. Our subject just stole another car just a few blocks from the park where he shot the jogger. Officers opened fire on him but abandoned the pursuit to assist a civilian our subject ran over.

**Greg: **Hit and Run?

**Winnie: **Subject didn't stop and it doesn't look good. I already put an APB out there. Gold Sedan, license plate Juliet, Alpha, Alpha 541. It's heading south on Bay Street.

**Ed: **Ok let make this the last person he takes down today. Let's close in on this guy. We'll try and contain in to Bay Street, we'll do a moving takedown if we have to.

**Jules: **Copy that we're on our way.

_Greg and Spike arrive at Espen Platform. Two young men are at the front desk._

**Man1: **Woah, you guys sure take cosplaying seriously.

**Greg: **I'm sorry?

**Man2: **Yeah I mean I feel kinda sorry to turn you away but Urban Warfare IV doesn't come out until next month.

_Spike takes out his badge and drops it on the desk for the men to see._

**Man1: **Looks super official, dude.

**Spike: **It's 'cause we're for real, guys. Do you recognize those people?

_Spike takes out his PDA and shows them a photo of the first victim._

**Man2: **Sure, Martin. Businessman and shit, likes to test our games. Help him deal with the stress.

**Spike: **What about this one?

_He then switches to a photo of the second victim._

**Man1: **Yeah sure, I mean they're both testers for our games. People send their applications. They register with us, get early releases of our games and give us their opinions on them.

**Greg: **Today those two clients of yours have been shot down by an unknown subject. They were both found with your technology.

_Spike takes out the two GPS tracking device_ _and the gun._

**Man2: **Hey hey, that's intellectual property that is !

**Man1: **Those aren't ready for the market yet.

**Greg: **Do we look like spies to you son? Look, one of your testers seems to be taking the game too seriously. You don't tell us everything you know right now and we'll be looking at more casualties.

**Spike: **Imagine the headline then, as people find out that Espen Platform hasn't done everything it could to prevent the carnage.

**Man1: **Ok ok, look, we gave the guns and the trackers to like..40 testers through the city. The idea is that they keep those on them at all time. They go on with their lives and if the GPS on the gun find them the location of a target they go and press the trigger. The player hit is immediately off the game. Last one "alive" wins a cashprize. But it's all safe. It's bogus.

**Greg: **Any way to know which one of your Guiney pigs could have taken the game too seriously?

**Man1: **It's like I said man..I mean..40 people.

**Spike: **That's a pretty big net.

**Winnie; **Well I way have a way to reduce it, check your PDA, I sent you the sketch our witness made.

_Spike switches to the latest picture and shows the sketch to the two young men._

**Man2: **No way.

**Man1: **That's Jerry.

**Greg: **Jerry?

**Man2: **Jerry Eberson.

**Spike: **You know him well?

**Man1: **He's a software designer. He did some work for us independently.

**Greg: **Heard that team? We've got a name for our subject.

**Winnie; **I'll check him out.

**Greg: **What can you tell me about him?

**Man2: **We haven't seen him in ages. He used to come over all the time. But he wasn't like other testers. He was..sort of obsessed about the details you know. Obsessed with making the game as real as possible. He used to call every day and ask us to change things, to make it all more believable, Other guys they just enjoy themselves mostly. And that's what we wanted, regular costumers y'know?

**Spike: **Any mental issues you'd know about?

**Man1: **Hey, you should see the clients we have, I'd say the mentally fit ones are the minority.

**Winnie: **I haven't much on that guy, I can't find any family or next of kin. But he's perceiving disability benefits.

**Greg: **What for?

**Winnie: **Well that kind of file is usually sealed. But he's been given a social worker to look over him so a mental issue of some kind is quite probable. But he missed his last three appointments with him.

**Ed:** Boss we lost him again. We think he dumped the car again 'cause the whole neighborhood is shut down and no sign of him.

**Spike: **No way to track Jerry down using his own device?

**Man2: **Sure if he's got it on him.

_The employee turns to his computer and uploads a map of the city where a bunch of small lights appear._

**Spike: **Those are all players?

**Man2: **Right. I can get a name by clicking on each light but you'll have to narrow it down.

**Spike: **Anything around Bay Street?

**Man2: **I've got two in the neighborhood. Jerry and Melody.

**Greg: **Melody?

**Man1: **Melody Pennington, she's our youngest player, she's nineteen.

**Ed: **His next victim boss?

**Greg: **Maybe that's what he did all day, drove around until he was able to get close enough to someone to get a signal.

**Sam; **Except it's not exactly pretend killing, that guy lost it completely.

**Man1: **Melody is at Ryerson University right now, Jerry is on Victoria St .

**Jules; **That's close to her.

**Leah: **He's tracking her.

**Ed: **Than we intercept him before he does. Spike you can relay the signal to us?

**Spike: **Sure thing.

**Greg: **You've got an address for Jerry Eberson?

**Man2: **Yeah, probably on file somewhere.

**Greg: **Ok I'll need it. Ed we're gonna head to his place and help you with the profile.

**Ed: **Copy that.

**Sam: **Ok from the GPS signal I'm guessing Melody is somewhere exposed, outside the school. Nothing to stop him from getting to her.

**Ed: **Let's prevent that, I don't think talk is much of an option here. Our guy already left a trail of bodies behind him, he probably knows he doesn't have much chance of getting out of that. First one that get the shot take the shot. Copy?

**Sam: **Copy.

_The Landlady of Jerry Eberson opens the apartment for them. It's a complete mess inside, aluminum completely covers the windows._

**Greg: **Does it always look like this?

**Landlady: **How should I know? Guy plays possum, haven't seen him for months and when I knock he just slips the rent underneath the door.

**Greg: **_pointing to the aluminum in the windows: _ And what's that for?

**Landlady: **Dunno. To prevent him from alien abduction? Seriously what am I ? His Shrink? Brought me nothing but trouble, and now the cops are at my door.

**Spike: **We won't be long. Thank you.

_The landlady walks away as Greg and Spike search through Jerry's stuff._

**Greg: **There's about a week of take-outs in his trash.

**Spike: **He hasn't been seen in months. And why should he? No family, self employed…

**Greg: **I've got pills. Mood Stabilizers. Flacon still full. It was prescribed to him 3months ago.

**Spike: **Got that Ed?

**Ed: **If he's on full-on mania right now negotiation is definitely off the table.

**Jules: **Ed I've got a visual on the subject, he's in front of the bookstore.

**Ed: **I see him, let's neutralize him now.

**Sam: **We're gonna have a problem, Melody Pennington is exiting the bookstore now.

_The team gets out of their vehicles, armed. Jerry sees them, panics and grabs Melody, putting his gun on her and Leah keep their weapons on the subject while Jules and Sam keep the fleeting bystanders going._

**Ed: **Jerry? Jerry Eberson? I'm officer Ed Lane. I'm with the SRU.

_Jerry doesn't say a word, he keeps the gun on Melody who stays very steal, tears running down her cheeks. Ed signals Sam to move away from the subject to find a vantage point._

**Ed: **Jerry can you tell me what you've been doing today? I'd like to try and work things out with you.

_No response from Jerry who just keeps on staring at the officers._

**Greg: **Eddie?

**Ed; **Subject is unresponsive. Sam?

_Sam has positioned himself at the other side of the street, he has set up his riffle on a garbage can._

**Sam: **I've got the solution.

**Ed: **Copy that. I'm gonna try one more time.

_To subject: _Jerry. I'm not gonna lie to you right now, you don't let the girl go I'm gonna give the order to one of my officer to take you down. You know what that means, right?

_Jerry becomes agitated again, pulling Melody even closer and putting his finger on the trigger._

**Ed; **Sam, take it.

_The subject drops the gun and falls to the floor as Sam fires his riffle. Melody runs into Jules's arms._

**Ed: **Boss. Subject contained.

**Greg: **_sigh: _copy that Eddie. Good job team.

_At the station, the team is debriefing, reviewing the last details of the call._

**Jules; **What do companies think, designing games like that. I mean those last few years it has really become the bloodier the better. My twelve year old nephew already spends all his free time blowing stuff up on his computer. Now their goal is to bring that into our everyday life with intensely-real fake guns. As if there wasn't enough violence already.

**Spike: **So what are you saying? Video games turn you into some kind of psychopath? Jerry Eberson wasn't well, he was a bomb ready to go off.

**Jules: **I'm not disputing that, but I'm sure it reinforced his delusions to an extent.

**Spike: **Anything could have set him off. We have no way of knowing what was inside his head.

**Ed: **Guy actually never said a word. Took his intent to his grave.

**Sam: **Well I'm with Jules on this one.

**Spike **_smirking:_Why am I not surprised?

**Sam: **No seriously. Have you seen what's selling these days. For 32,99$ you can pretend to be some kind of supersoldier, slitting the enemy's throat and destroying a terrorist's hideout with

flamethrowers. I hate the image it gives to kids and I hate that it makes war appealing to them.

_Winnie joins them at the table._

**Winnie: **I made a few calls. First to his social worker, who justified his lack of follow-ups by him being overworked and having already hundreds of "loonies like that" on his filling cabinet already.

After that I called the shrink that signs his disability checks. Name didn't mean anything to her and she couldn't find his file even an hour after I called her.

**Greg: **This guy completely fell through the cracks.

**Jules: **This shouldn't have happened.

**END.**

**[Just realized there's very little character development in that story, must have seemed very boring to whoever read it all the way through. Feel free to give your opinion on it anyway.]**


End file.
